The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-09-02
BENTLY'S PRACTICE.
The Fortunate Result of an On
pleasant Predicament.

When Bently and were first mar
ried we lived at Bradham, large man.
ufacturing town in Yorkshire. l am
thankful to say we do not live there
now; only those who haye had expert
ence of that place can imagine how
: horrible it is.
Fancy a great big city with between
two and three thousand inhabitants all
devoted to wool-living by it and for
it. talking, dreaming and thinking
nothing but wool, with hundreds of tall
chimnies from the mills. all pouring
forth volumes of smoke and all max
ing cloth, or shoddy. or something of
that kind, as fast as they can; and with
all this, not ghost of sheep to be
seen unless one goes miles out on to
the moors, and even then the air is full
of smoke that the poor dears are quite
black and grimy and haven't a clean
back among them; so different from
the Improved Leicesters" my father
breeds on his farm in Devonshire, who
have fieeces as white as snow, and who
look perfectly sweet when they are
washed and started off to the Bath and
West of England show with blue rib
bons round their necks.
Think what Bradham was to me!
used as had been all my life to the re-
fined society of Cathedral town; for
can assure you that the inhabitants of
Bradham are not charming; they are
mostly very rich, and live in great
houses with hosts of servants; the
women dress very gorgecusly, and the
men have a taste for diamond studs
and large watch chains; they have, with
few exceptions, risen from the very
lowest classes, and are not nice in
their prosperity, but bumptious and
vulgar, and rather contemptuous
toward those who are not as wealthy
as they are.
When Bently bought practice
there every one seemed to think that it
would be good thing, that it was a
fine opening, and that we would get on
well; and in the end their conjectures
proved true, though not at all in the
way they imagined.
Twas really very miserable at Brad
ham for two years, for l could not get
on with the people, and of course a
doctors wife ought to be on good terms
with everybody. The only person l
cared for at all was Lizzie Dacrcs. She
and her mother lived in little house
near to us; they were not at all well
of, and Lizzie did china painting. She
and got very friendly. and we spent a
good deal of time together.
Just at first the practice seemed a
good one, and then it began steadily to
fall off. Whether it was that people
did not like Bcntly, or thought him too
young, l can not tell; but a great many
who had been his predecessors pa
tients never sent for him at all, but
employed some one else, and he grew
very melancholy over it.
had no fortune of my own, and he
only what he earned, as he had invest
ed all his money in this affair, so that
If it failed it would be very black
lookout for US He did not like to put
down his carriage and horse, for it
looks so bad for doctor to have to re-
trench. people invariably say he does
not succeed because he is incapable; 50
then we were living far beyond our
means and getting into debt.
Itwas very unpleasant, and Twas al
ways reproaching myself, for fancied
it was partly my fault Every one used
to tell us 1.-THE late mans wife" had
made his practice for him.
fused to sit and think and think what
Mrs. Moxon could have done, and how
Icould possibly make Bently's practice.
heard o. doctors wife once who
gave supper and colored all the jel-
lies with some pink stuff she found in
the surgery, and the next day every
one was so violently ill that her hus-
band could not go to bed for three
nights, but had to spend all his time
ministering to his ex-guests.
KNEW that Mrs. Moxon used to give
swell dinner parties. and 1 used 10
wonder if she artfully poisoned the en-
trees, and, if SO, what she did it with.
One day Bently came in looking
rather less blue than usual.
'.Madge," he said, Il have got nice
new P. T. 1--WE used to call the patients
p. T.'s). and who do you think it is?''
Il could not guess, SO at last he had
to tell me Mr.. Jerry Winterbottom, of
Barrowclough.
Mr.. Jerry Winterbottom was enor-
mously rich and very influential, for
besides being a mill-owner he had a
great deal of land and house property.
/ knew him and his wife quite well by
sight; they were both very large. and
people always spoke of them as ga fine
coupie"-in appearance, at least. they
were very imposing. They had the
biggest horses and the tallest footmen
in 'Bradham. and only one child to
leave every thing to.
young jerry" as he was always
called, was about twenty-four. and
quite different from his parents He
was small anu slight and delicate, with
deep-set eyes that were never still, but
always glancing nervously about
His father and mother were devoted